A Classic Choice on November 8

...Thus, despite the fact that they were far from ideal, they did revolve around ideas worthy of serious consideration...

...Bush argued: "We can't simply say we've got enough nuclear weapons, let's freeze...

...Adam Smith calling for faith in "the invisible hand" (1776...

...I'm not going to go to entitlements as a means for cutting that deficit when we're spending billions on something like Star Wars...

...So much in so few years...

...there was hardly ever time to say why...

...Why do people who want to balance budgets," he asked, "always go to those programs which tend to benefit people of very modest means...

...About 100 viewers, chosen "at random," rated the "fighters" punch by counterpunch...

...Whatever the outcome on November 8, it will not be long before the ancient confrontations over the role of government, the distribution of income and our national priorities break out again...

...If, however, there are enough angry people ready to go to the polls simply to protest, they may— provided the overall turnout is small enough—carry the day...

...and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal...

...Reagan ran against government—at least, against big government in Washington...

...In the first article I did for this series ("Countdown 88," NL, June 13), I wrote that "our ship of state is in a sea of troubles but cannot sail on because it is caught in the doldrums...

...Both candidates seek income redistribution: Bush would favor the top tenth, Dukakis the other nine-tenths...

...But they constituted an update of an ongoing debate that started many centuries before this election...

...The one constructed by George Bush captures the essence of modern conservatism...

...Dukakis' policies to bring about a more equitable distribution of income are a continuance of Plato's formula that no one should have an income more than four times that of the poorest person, of Aristotle's "distributive justice," of Aquinas'"just wage and just price," of Keynes' call for a more "rational" approach to distributing income...

...When Reagan came into office, the total national debt was $1 trillion...

...Theodore Roosevelt's dictum that "the betterment which we seek must be accomplished mainly through the national government" (1910...

...Bush thinks Congress has been spending too much on "entitlements," a euphemism for social programs...

...But one does not have any sense of the citizenry being engaged...

...Bush believes that we should not cut back on military spending...

...We're not going to spend billions on MXs on railroad cars, which is a weapons system we don't need...

...The issues raised in the debates could have become an agenda for public discussion in the electronic agora...

...Bush believes that the way to stimulate economic growth is to give more to those who have and especially to those who have the most...

...Bush wants to spend on Star Wars...

...the general theories of Keynes...

...In the 198 8 race, candidate Bush proclaims that voodoo can do...

...Dukakis seeks growth by giving more to those who are "have-nots" or who "have-not-very-much...

...Jimmy was the lad from the sticks with none of Dicky's tricks, a country bumpkin trekking red clay into the Oval Office...

...That is Bush's edge...

...The media asked but one question: Who won...

...The decision: Lloyd Bentsen topped Dan Quayle by a score of 4.75 against 4.16 on a scale of seven...

...The other half is how the government allocates that money...

...Moreover, given the number of "sound bytes" that had to be crammed into a one- or two-minute frame, each candidate was limited to saying where he stood on such matters as the budget, taxes, trade, defense, education, abortion, capital punishment, the homeless, the environment, drugs, even sleaze...

...Alexander Hamilton's plan to have the Federal government actively intervene to promote manufactures (1791...

...See my second "Countdown '88" piece, NL, July 11...

...He repeated it five times in the initial debate and did a reprise in the second one...

...We can't do that...

...Dukakis was equally direct: "We are not going to spend the billions and trillions that Mr...

...I don't believe that...

...Gus Tyler, a frequent contributor, is Assistant President of the ilgwu...

...The media could have made the followup on the debates an ennobling and enlightening moment in the making of America...

...Dukakis reminds us that voodoo can't do—and didn't do...

...The TV clash between the candidates on these questions was head-on...

...This desire to take a rest from politics may be especially compelling after a period of intense, almost frenetic, activity such as the New Deal, followed in quick succession by the war against Hitler, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Great Society, the civil rights reforms...

...Bush continues in the passive mode, counting on a thousand homemade candles, feebly flickering before an onrushing economic tempest...

...The Vice President answers, No...

...He did ask for a "line item" veto, but was careful not to indicate before the election which "lines" he would veto...

...It runs back many centuries to the time when Thucydides warned Athens that overemphasis on military exploits would ruin the Athenian empire...

...To rouse the electorate seems to require some calamity—a depression, a war or a gross act of crookedness à la Watergate...

...It didn't...

...Countdown '88 A CLASSIC CHOICE ON NOVEMBER 8 BY GUS TYLER When Americans enter the polling booths on the second Tuesday of next month, the choice before them will be two collages of classic political concepts...

...This isn't aquestion of a little charity," hesaid...

...The "controllers" are supposed to tell the American people what it was they really saw and heard, and exactly what they should be thinking as a consequence...

...On the first issue, Bush looks to charity and local action to cope with the nation's most challenging domestic problems...

...Levying taxes (how much, on whom) is only one half of the government's role in determining income distribution...

...and Herbert Hoover counting on "rugged individualism"—embodied in "block aid," or neighbors helping neighbors— to cope with the Great Depression...

...When they do, history is likely to record Election'88 as another of those recurrent moments of calm before the storm—as another 1928 before the Great Depression or as another 1852 before the Civil War...

...Dukakis' response, in an aside, that he did not quite know what was meant by these "thousand points of light," irked Bush...

...And sure enough, it was largely to these experts that the media turned...

...They were treated as if they were mere sporting events—not very different from the 100 meter dash, the high jump or any of the other contests in the Olympic Games that dominated American TV screens last month...

...Bush proposes to cut the capital gains tax, an idea that seems perverse at a time when the Treasury is running deficits of between $150 billion-$200 billion a year...

...A frustrating format made it difficult to detect the underlying philosophies of the contenders in the Presidential (and Vice Presidential) debates, the high points of the '88 race...

...It is not going to cost the government money...

...Who can keep up that pace...

...The differences between the Republican and Democratic standard-bearers on income distribution are also in the classic mold...

...Won't that increase the deficit...

...It is going to increase revenues to the Federal government and it is going to create jobs...

...We have to have modernization...

...He made it clear that if there had to be budgetary cuts, he would not begin by depriving those who have the least...

...Although never stated bluntly, they are implicit in the candidates' discussions of taxes and national priorities...

...As forthecapital gains tax, Dukakis maintains that cutting it would "give the wealthiest 1 per cent of the people in the country a fiveyear, $40 billion tax break" attheexpense of the rest of the taxpayers...

...What troubles me," he said, "is that when I talk of the voluntary sector and a thousand points of light and a thousand different ways to help on these problems, the man has just said he doesn't understand what I'm talking about...

...The issue has both ethical and economic roots—a fair spread of income is necessary to maintain social harmony and to provide a market for a market economy...

...That is Dukakis' hope...

...Indeed, for Americans to turn their backs on the ballot box may be the normal mode, explaining our remarkably low participation rate in national elections...

...Bush's view has famous forebears: the merchant Le Gendre expressing the typical businessman's notion to French Finance Minister Jean Baptiste Colbert with the famous phrase, "laissez-nous faire" (1680...

...These were slapdash exchanges on the proper role of government...

...It may be that the American people look upon the election as a trivial pursuit, a quadrennial exercise that somehow has nothing to do with their daily lives...

...When you cut capital gains taxes, you put people to work...

...Dukakis' view has honorable forebears: Plato's call for a "just" society...

...Instead, they debased the democratic process, turning it into a kind of amateur night where the winner is selected by the level of noise registered on an applause meter...

...For the conscientious viewer, the debates were, after all, a contemporary version of classic confrontations over three basic aspects of politics: 1) the role of government in the economy...

...Perhaps, though, the real culprit is not the media but the present mood of the nation...

...Because the television shows were built around a helterskelter popping of unrelated questions, they produced unconnected responses...

...Thisisaquestionof organizing the housing community...

...Dukakis, the essence of modern liberalism...

...Bush's contention that enriching the richest is in the best interest of all, including the poorest, is the direct descendant not merely of "trickle down" and of " supply side" economics, but of Jean Baptiste Say's loi de débouché (1803), which said that so long as capitalists had capital there could be no serious unemployment...

...Otherwise, the people lapse into lassitude...

...Apathy naturally favors the status quo candidate, as confused voters conclude that the best thing to do is nothing...

...We've got to get back to the business of building and rehabilitating housing for families of low and middle income in this country...

...The 90 minutes of airtime were divided into 10-minute segments, like rounds in a prize fight...

...To get the job done, he insisted, required "leadership" from the White House...

...Dukakis thinks our programs to stimulate the economy and meet human needs are underfunded...

...Jimmy Carter capitalized on the apathetic mood...

...Within seconds after the debates ended, the TV networks set to work trivializing them...

...George Bush, then seeking his party's nomination, called the logic "voodoo economics...

...Asked what weapons system he would eliminate, Bush said: "It's not a question of saying our budget is full of a lot of waste...

...Nevertheless, the fundamental ideologies of the participants did somehow emerge...

...Finally, he did: It is the "voluntary" sector, perhaps supplemented by state and local government...

...The essential question is ancient: How much for guns and how much for butter...

...Beyond the three major themes concerning the role of government, income distribution and national priorities, other important and often emotionally charged subjects were covered during the debates...

...The awesome apathy we are experiencing is not confined to our times...

...The Vice President expressed his laissez faire philosophy in an uncharacteristically poetic phrase drawn from his convention speech: "a thousand points of light...

...That did not have to be the case...

...In anticipation of the media asking who won, the rival campaign headquarters prepared a little legion of experts in what has come to be called "spin control...

...Playing on Bush's metaphor, he identified himself with "240 million points of light," with "every citizen in the country...

...theone by MichaelS...

...social democratic policies over the last century...

...Here, too, the clash echoes a classic confrontation...

...Ever since Virgil sang "Arma virumque cano," great nations have been torn between those who say we are not spending enough on arms (arma), and those who say we are not paying enough attention toman(virum...

...Rather than trying to claim in 1976 that he had experience in Washington, he made a virtue out of his distance from DC...

...it was his leitmotif...

...Up to that moment Bush had not defined his metaphor...

...and 3) national priorities...

...In his Rise and Fall of the Great Po wers, Paul Kennedy recounts how over the last 500 years one powerful country after another has toppled because of the imbalance between internal economy and external military obligations...

...2) the distribution of income and wealth...

...In the second debate, Dukakis expanded on the need for the Federal government to "invest in things" such as "economic development, good jobs, good schools for our kids, college opportunity for young people, decent health care and affordable housing, and a clean and safe environment...

...Since then, no great wind—whether an issue, an event, or a personality—has filled our sails...

...Dukakis believes we should...

...nowitis$2.5 trillion...

...Dukakis holds a contrary position...

...Competent Senators and Representatives, academics and advocates could have been brought into the dialogue to expand, reinforce or refute facts and opinions the candidates had to cram into a few minutes...

...Some attribute this to the media managing the message to meet their cinematic needs...

...It is the recurrent equine principle that the way to feed the sparrows is to feed the horses...

...critics ask...

...In regard to entitlements, Bush did not say what he would cut, although he made several references to the spendthrift ways of Congress...

...USA Today went so far as to run a box score on the Vice Presidential encounter, awarding points to the contenders on a blow-by-blow basis...

...Cutting taxes for the richest was supposed to balance the budget...

...In 1980, under the rubric of "supply side" economics, Ronald Reagan made exactly the same argument...

...Dukakis wants "to reduce defense outlays and to use [the savings] for important things here at home, like jobs and job training and college opportunity and health and housing and the environment and the things that all of us care about...